Non-sophisticated technology users generally do not understand that simply removing an external device (for example, an external storage device or devices, and/or external memory device or devices) from a host computer can corrupt data or cause a loss of data from the device. In many cases, the host operating system (OS) is still performing operations such as queuing write transactions for the disk, for example, and may not have updated the device when the user removes the device from the host. Operating systems do typically provide utilities to prepare for the safe removal of devices. However, such operations are cumbersome and therefore take extra time to complete. For example, the Microsoft Windows operating system requires a click, a double click in the system tray, a selection from a list of devices (“which one is mine?”), a click to commence, and a click to confirm. That is, Windows takes five mouse clicks to remove the device. And those five clicks is a best case scenario that occurs only if the user finds the utility easily, and selects the correct device. In Universal Serial Bus (USB) implementations, for example, these downfalls are amplified by the implicit nature of USB devices (that they can be inserted and removed as desired). However, for storage products, for example, this is not the case.
Many computer users (for example, personal computer users) now use one or more flash memory devices that connect to the computer (for example, via a USB slot) to store data. One example of such a device is referred to as USB-Disk-on-key (DOK). When using such a disk, the user easily plugs the device into a USB-slot located on his computer (for example, a PC, a desktop, a laptop, and/or some present or future type of computing device). Using the operating system of the computer, the user can then easily access the data stored on the device. When finished using the DOK, the user needs to signal the operating system that the disk is about to be removed. In this manner, the OS will be able to flush all buffered files targeted to this device. The method to signal the OS in Microsoft Windows OS is by clicking the USB-devices icon in the notification area located on the right side of the Windows task bar. The user must first click to select the USB actions windows, and then click on the correct USB device, for example.